


Practicality

by inelegantly (Lir)



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Canon Compliant, Developing Relationship, Domestic, Established Relationship, Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-05
Updated: 2016-02-05
Packaged: 2018-05-18 18:31:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5938681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lir/pseuds/inelegantly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Touya Akira sees Valentine's Day as a matter of obligation, a social nicety to be performed correctly. Shindou Hikaru sees it as an opportunity to eat free chocolate. Somehow, they end up spending the holiday together all the same, bickering over the occasion exactly as they always do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Practicality

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cookinguptales](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cookinguptales/gifts).



> I really enjoyed reading your letter and all of your prompts. The one that inspired me was: "I honestly can’t see Hikaru or Akira caring that much about V-Day or White Day, but that sort of just makes me want fic about those holidays even more. How unobservant are they? Do they ignore confessions? Do they even remember the day’s coming up until it’s upon them? Do their friends/family despair? How much confusion will they go through if they’re forced to participate? (Do they even need a holiday when they’ve got Go to flirt through?)"
> 
> This is also how I feel Hikaru and Akira would regard Valentine's Day, and it's therefore what I chose to run with.
> 
> For reference, Sakurano is the female pro whose place Akira takes in order to tie four simultaneous games. She is mentioned in canon to be pretty.

* * *

"Touya!" Hikaru calls.

The shout of his greeting is followed by the bang of the apartment door being thrust closed behind him. Not for the first time, Akira can't help but lament giving Hikaru his own key. Also not for the first time, he discards those regrets as not being worth the energy it takes to think them. Hikaru's visits have become a matter of course, and denying him a key would do nothing to stave off his comings and goings. 

"Play a game with me!" Hikaru shouts next from the entryway. 

This entreaty is followed by a thump that can be nothing other than Hikaru's bag hitting the floor just inside the doorway. Seeing as Hikaru is entirely willing to make himself at home, Akira permits himself to continue putting his groceries away in the refrigerator. Even Hikaru can do only so much damage to the apartment in the time Akira is allowing him alone. 

"I have an official match on Thursday—" Akira begins to explain, as he walks out of the tiny nook that is his kitchen. Then, seeing Hikaru bent over the table beside the door, exclaims: " _Shindou!_ " 

"Touya!" Hikaru says again, spinning around with his hand before his face. "Since when do you buy these fancy chocolates? They're really good — have you tried them yet? I couldn't help myself." 

The sheepishness of the grin Hikaru flashes him is undercut by how cheerfully he tosses the last of the chocolate bonbon he'd been munching on into his mouth. By his sides, Akira's hands slowly clench into fists. 

"I didn't _buy_ those," Akira protests. "They were a _gift._ "

"A gift?" Hikaru echoes. "Uh huh, from who? Who's giving you gifts?" 

"They're from Sakurano-san," Akira says. "For Valentine's Day. And I was saving them, as a reminder to purchase her a gift in return on White Day." 

" _Saving_ them!" Hikaru exclaims, spinning around to grab another bonbon to brandish at Akira in protest. "Until _March_?" He pops the bonbon into his mouth, aggressively chewing it apart. "They'll go stale by March. Lucky for Sakurano-san I'm here to enjoy them, huh?" 

"They aren't for _you,_ " Akira insists, reaching past Hikaru to snatch the box of chocolates out of the way. "Which you might understand, if anyone had been kind enough to gift you with chocolates for the holiday. But as it's become clear that they _haven't,_ I can only ask that you leave my gifts _alone._ "

"Hey!" Hikaru protests. "I've gotten Valentine's chocolate before. I got it _every year_ when I was younger, because I'm so cute." He grins at Akira to prove his point, but does it so fiercely it contorts his face into more of a grimace than any sort of winning smile. "I mean, she stopped after I became an insei? But that was _homemade_ chocolate, which means it's better than this stuff that comes out of a box!" 

"You liked it just fine when you were eating all of it!" Akira says, pulling the box even closer to his chest and shooting Hikaru a sour look. 

"Oh, sure," Hikaru says, waving one hand dismissively. "It tastes really good. But that's... Didn't I play Sakurano-san in one of the latest title preliminary matches? She's just another pro, it's not like it means anything if she gives you chocolate. It's just — it's obligation, right? That's nothing." 

"It doesn't matter if it means anything," Akira says, voice tight even as he feels the willingness to argue beginning to drain out of him. "What matters is that it is a gift addressed to me, and you went into it without even thinking to ask my permission." 

"It's not—" Hikaru starts to say, before it sinks in that maybe, just maybe, he's been the one to screw up. Though he rolls his eyes, the sheepish look he offers Akira then feels a lot more genuine. "If it matters that much, I could buy you chocolate. To make up for it." 

It isn't how Hikaru means it, but for a moment Akira is caught completely off-guard by the offer. It's never occurred to him that Valentine's Day is a holiday they might celebrate together; it just isn't what they do. As Hikaru himself had put it, it's obligation. Akira may be loyal to the duties he takes on but nothing about his relationship with Hikaru has ever been about _duty._

"There's no need for you to do that," he says, once his tongue comes unstuck from his mouth. "You were right. There's no reason for us to make an obligation into more than it is. Let's play a game, and then I'll begin cooking dinner." 

"Ramen!" Hikaru blurts out. "Can we cook ramen?" 

"We?" Akira echoes. "I don't recall there being a 'we' involved the last time you stayed for dinner." 

Even as he chides Hikaru, he's already walking across the main living space of the apartment, getting out the goban and setting it up on the floor. Hikaru follows right behind him, throwing himself down beside the board and snatching up the go-ke filled with black stones. 

"That's because _you_ didn't want me to touch anything!" he continues to protest. "Maybe I'll help this time. If you _ask_ me to." 

Akira seats himself more primly, legs folding up beneath him and hands reaching gently to slide the other go-ke towards him. A glance between them confirms for Hikaru that he should nigiri, spilling a handful of stones across the board to be matched by the single white one Akira tips out of his palm. Hikaru keeps black. It takes only a moment to pour the stones back into their pots and then the game is begun. 

"I do have the ingredients for it," Akira admits, as he places a stone upon the board. "If you absolutely must have ramen for dinner." 

"Really?" Hikaru asks, so eager that he hesitates with his stone plucked between his fingers. "You're the best, Touya!" 

It's minimal, but Akira can feel his face relaxing, can feel his lips smoothing into the barest beginnings of a smile. It might be a small thing, offering to cook for Hikaru his favorite food, and with _real_ vegetables and meat in it rather than instant. Nevertheless, Hikaru's warm reception of his amateur cooking efforts is enough to fill Akira with a steady, gut-deep sense of satisfaction. 

It's enough that he considers forgiving the rudeness of Hikaru prying into his gift. It isn't the first time Hikaru has done such a thing, and Akira is certain it will not be the last. 

"Maybe we can share the rest of the chocolates after dinner," Akira muses, voice coming out soft even as his sharp eyes scrutinize the battle beginning to break out on the board. "I don't want them to go to waste, now that they've been opened." 

"I thought they were a gift," Hikaru says, attention riveted on the game as he considers his next move. 

"Some gifts are better shared, aren't they?" Akira asks. "And it isn't as if I must inform Sakurano-san of whether I've eaten all of her chocolates myself." 

Hikaru places his stone, and looks up with a grin. "Isn't that kinda like you're giving Valentine's chocolate to me?" 

Akira sniffs, and makes his own move. "Don't flatter yourself too much, Shindou." 

But Hikaru only grins wider, and Akira doesn't have the heart to discourage him out of it. The battle moves elsewhere on the board, spreading into the lower right and pulling Akira's attention along with it. Maybe it is like giving Hikaru Valentine's chocolate. Akira doesn't entirely see the problem with it.

He's always been a very practical person, and can see no better way to spend an impractical holiday than across a table — across a Go board — from Hikaru, playing games and eating dinner and passing the time exactly as they always do, because it's exactly what they both like best.

* * *


End file.
